


in the years since

by amosanguis



Series: crossovers and fusions ftw [18]
Category: The Following, X-Men (Movies)
Genre: 2nd POV - Mike, Bobby is Mike, Canonical Alternate Universe, Canonical Character Death, Edited, I accidentally Bobby/Logan, M/M, This started out as Mike/Ryan but I don't know what happened, but not a lot, there's a bit of Mike/Ryan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-27
Updated: 2013-02-27
Packaged: 2017-12-03 18:20:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/701237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amosanguis/pseuds/amosanguis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The world has tried very hard to forget about mutants since the massacres were finally stopped.</p>
            </blockquote>





	in the years since

-z-

 

It had been years, _years_ , since the last mutant spoke publicly. 

Not since Professor X was ripped apart by Phoenix and Magneto tore his way through San Francisco, mad with the pain of the loss.  And when Magneto finally collapsed from exhaustion, when the city around him was nothing but rubble and most of its people turned to ash, he just laid down in the middle of it all and died.

The shock of the amount of death and destruction didn’t last long and soon, mutants weren’t even being rounded up anymore, they were just shot in the head.  It took the White House, and many of the world’s governments, almost a decade to get the killing under control.  And by then, mutants were on the brink of extinction.

And since then, the world has tried very hard to forget about the mutants.  And the mutants have done their best to keep it that way.   

 

-x-

 

So you hid yourself deep in the darkest parts of the country, riding out the consequences of San Francisco.  And part of that hiding was burying your powers, shoving them away and ignoring the itch in your fingers.

And it was during your time in hiding that you noticed that you weren’t aging.  It had been almost twenty years since Professor X’s death and you still looked so young.

And then Logan blasted into town on a Harley and just so happened to stop at the gas station you were working at.  When he saw you, he froze.

“Holy crap,” he whispered as you jumped over the counter and tackled the man, wrapping your arms around him.  He hugged you back just as tight – almost to the point of cracking your ribs.

“I thought you were all dead,” you whispered into his neck.

“It didn’t quite take,” Logan said, the both of you laughed.

Logan stayed in town for a week.  He told you about how he had been running for so long, how the government had finally given up, and he was on his way back to Canada.  And as the two of you drowned yourselves in memories and alcohol, your clothes fell to the floor and Logan was looming over you, his teeth at your neck and your body arching up into him.

“Why don’t you come with me?” he had asked afterwards.

The idea of staying with Logan was incredibly enticing.  Just the thought of being with someone who knew what you were, someone you didn’t have to hide everything from – it would’ve been perfect.

But something stopped you, a feeling in your gut that there was something coming your way.

You simply smiled at him and told him, “Not yet.”

He huffed out a laugh and pulled you in for a long, slow kiss and it was almost enough to change your mind.

The next morning, the case about Joe Carroll hit the news.

 

-x-

 

You didn’t decide to get into law enforcement until you had read Ryan Hardy’s book and you fell in love with the man, the case, the work.  You remembered what it was like when you protected people, when you were able to save a life – the feeling was incomparable to anything else and it was something you found you’ve been missing.

So you go through the academy, breezing through the endurance runs and combat training (( _you had sparred with Wolverine and Tin Man, these men were nothing_ )).  You did your time and paid your dues as first a beat cop and then detective; and when the FBI came calling you happily accepted them and you were welcomed into the fold.

Troy was your first partner with the FBI and right away he knew what you were.  And, just in true Troy fashion, the first thing he did was ask you to chill his beer.

“Makes me feel good knowing I got you on my side,” he smiled and you shook your head and the both of you laughed.  “Makes me feel invincible.”

“Don’t jinx us!” you had yelled as you threw your bottle cap at him.

 

-x-

 

Then Joe Carroll comes back into the spotlight and Ryan Hardy is called once again into the fray.

Things between the two of you were strained at first – you trying to keep your inner fan boy in check as he fought off the demons from his past with a vodka filled water bottle. 

But then Troy died in your arms, gasping and choking on his own blood. 

You heard Ryan yelling at Maggie Kester to stop, to put her hands up and then you hear gun fire and you know that Rick is back.  And, as the **_ragepaingetthemgetthemgetthem_** slams into you, the ice inside of you rips away from your control and encases your entire body and you’re running outside.

You feel bullets chink away at your ice, but all you see is Ryan standing over Rick and Maggie getting away.  You’re screaming as you chase after her, you solidify the moisture from the air into ice and slam it into her – ripping away her skin.  And, when she falls, you stand over her and just as you bring your fist up to smash her face in, you see Ryan out of the corner of your eye.

And you see the fear in his eyes.

Ryan Hardy – the man who had been stabbed in the heart and lived, the man who could stare down the barrel of a gun and simply smile – was afraid.  And he was afraid of  _you._

You looked down at Maggie, bleeding and sobbing, and slowly, so slowly, you were able to grab the ice and force it back down.  And just before you flipped her onto her stomach to handcuff her, you leaned in close, grabbed her face and growled:

“Tell anyone and I _will_ kill you.”

Maggie just cried harder.

 

-x-

 

Ryan didn’t say anything about what happened that night, but afterwards, he gave you a wide berth until you finally cornered him.

“Just say what’s on your mind,” you told him.

“I thought all of you were dead,” Ryan finally whispered.  You note how he doesn’t say the word “mutant”.

“Most of us,” you say, taking a step back.

“Were you going to kill Maggie Kester?”

“Yes,” you say, any other answer would have been a lie and Ryan would have known.  “She killed Troy so yes I would have killed her.”

“Did Troy know what you were?”

“What I _am_ ; and yeah, he knew.”

Ryan nodded, looked around before he said: “I’m not going to tell anyone, if that’s what you’re looking for.  I would have – if you had killed that woman, I would have said something.”

You nod and things are left at that.

 

-x-

 

You didn’t manage to get Ryan to truly change his attitude toward you until you saved his life.  It wasn’t even work related – you had stopped at a convenience store on your way back from arresting one of Carroll’s followers, when a duo of gunmen attempted to rob the place.

You and Ryan managed to overwhelm the robbers – but not before one of them fired a bullet into Ryan’s leg.

“You’re gonna be okay, you’re gonna be okay,” you said over and over again.  You reached inside you, into the deep dark spot you hid your powers and, with all the care and control you could muster, you brought it to the surface – you chilled Ryan’s blood, slowing its flow.

“Thank you,” Ryan said later, lying in the hospital bed and pointedly not looking you in the eye.

“Yeah,” was all you said from your spot in the doorway.

You wanted to tell him about _before_ , about how old you really were.  You wanted to tell him about how you used to save people, about how you had tried to save as many as you could in San Francisco, about how you had fought and fought and fought until you couldn’t even stand.

But, when you opened your mouth, the words never made it past your tongue.

 

-x-

 

After the convenience store incident, Ryan’s attitude changed.  He stood closer to you, looked you in the eye, asked for your opinion.

Then the touches started, little things at first – a graze of the hand as he handed you a file, a brush of your shoulders as he walked by.  And then they started to last longer and that first time you went out for drinks, you knew what was coming next.

And the night Claire Matthews was taken, Ryan stumbled home with you – drunk off grief and Jack Daniel’s and his sense of failure. 

It was awkward at first, but you let him have you.  And when he sobered and asked after you, you simply smiled and pressed a chaste kiss to his forehead, then you pulled him close and whispered soft assurances.  Later, he let you take him; it was slow and gentle and when he whispered _JoeClaireJoe_ , you pretended not to notice (( _just as he had pretended not to notice when you called for Logan the night before_ )).

 

-x-

 

Eventually the time came that Joe Carroll’s followers were either in prison or dead or had abandoned the cause.

That last night, you had pulled Ryan in close, whispered those loving words you knew he loved and took him hard and fast. 

And in the morning, you quit the FBI and drove up to Canada and into Logan’s outstretched arms.

 

-z-

 

End.


End file.
